HAWK-800 future software upgrade considerations
2008-06-22 by korgpolyex800
Good day to all HAWK-800 beta testers, Yes, I call you beta testers for a couple of important reasons that need to discussed and hashed out. i) Extended and Original Parameter future moves There is a strong possibility that I am going to rearrange the ordering of the extended parameters and perhaps the original parameters into a layout that works better with the new features. At the moment, I've been just adding new parameters in the order in which I implement them. This makes the layout very awkward. If and when reordering happens, your existing patches are going to be affected because the order will have changed. Are HAWK-800 owners likely to rise up in revolt due to this possible future inconvenience? I hope not, but it important to take this into consideration if you intend to have your patches kept intact in the future. I will make sure that any reordering that does occur is widely published. From now on, all flash software upgrades will include release notes that describe in detail the caveats and changes. This should help you to reorder your patch parameters if and when they do happen. ii) Parameter function changes Similar to the issue above, there is a strong chance that some of the new parameters will have their behaviors changed in such a way that may cause your patches to change from their original intended sound. This may also apply to some of the original parameters, in particular, the VCF parameters may significantly change. Once again, release notes with each new version of firmware released will detail any such changes. The question is, how does everybody feel about such inconveniences? And is there a way you would like me to handle such future changes? iii) EPROM upgrade The new EPROM that comes with the HAWK-800 kit contains just enough code to do the FLASH software update and start up the synth by jumping into the downloaded flash software. At some point in the future, it is going to be necessary to upgrade the EPROM firmware. I guess there will be two ways to do this. One would be to make the EPROM code available for download on the HAWK-800 website from where owners can find some local techy with an EPROM programmer to first erase and then reprogram the existing EPROM. The other way would be to make a new EPROM available for purchase via the HAWK-800 website. I am guessing it will cost about $7.50 USD plus shipping. So I just wanted to explain everything as best I could as to the future plans for the software. Mike.